Europe & Central Asia

2011

New York, June 16, 2011--TheCommittee to Protect Journalists condemns the detention and reported
beating in custody of Urinboy Usmonov, a local correspondent for the BBC
Central Asia service, and calls for his immediate release.

Tags:

New York, June 14, 2011--Belarusian authorities must end the retaliatory prosecution of Andrzej
Poczobut, a Grodno-based correspondent for the largest Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, and release him immediately,
the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Tags:

President Otunbayeva: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by the ongoing prosecution of two media owners and the imprisonment of a reporter on charges of inciting and participating in violent ethnic conflict last year. The persecution of Khalil Khudaiberdiyev, Dzhavlon Mirzakhodzhayev, and Azimjon Askarov--all ethnic Uzbeks--tarnishes your stated commitments to press freedom and rule of law, and derails your government's efforts to rebuild interethnic trust in a nation deeply divided by the June 2010 conflict.

Tags:

Members from around the world of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange met in
Beirut last week. On the second day of our conference, amid discussions of the daily
problems journalists face, we received word of the abduction and murder of Pakistani
investigative journalist Saleem
Shahzad. A day later, the conference buzzed with news of an arrest more
than five years after the murder of iconic Russian journalist Anna
Politkovskaya. As news unfolded in both cases, impunity--a recurring theme
in official meetings and hallway conversations--loudly made its way to the
forefront. And on June 2, IFEX members announced that they would join forces to
globally put an end to journalists' murders and impunity for their killers,
making November 23 the International Day to End Impunity.

Kyrgyzstan is an "island of democracy" where authorities guarantee freedom of speech and reporting on protest rallies is not a crime, Kyrgyz government officials told an audience. They were speaking at a May 26 round-table discussion at the Open Society Institute in New York. CPJ vehemently disagreed. We had reported on the ongoing prosecution of media owners in the country and how a regional reporter had been recently sentenced to life in prison.

Tags:

Few cases of sexual assault against journalists have ever
been documented, a product of powerful cultural and professional stigmas. But
now dozens of journalists are coming forward to say they have been sexually
abused in the course of their work. A
CPJ special report by Lauren Wolfe

Tags:

In conjunction with the release of its special report, “The
Silencing Crime: Sexual Violence and Journalists,” CPJ is issuing an addendum to its existing journalist security
guide. The addendum, written by CPJ Journalist Security Coordinator Frank Smyth, addresses the issue of sexual aggression against
journalists and focuses on ways to minimize the risk.The addendum, published below, is also available
in the full text of CPJ’s online security guide.

Tags:

Journalists around the world are talking more candidly about sexual abuse they've experienced on the job. CPJ Senior Editor Lauren Wolfe, author of the special report, "The Silencing Crime," describes her findings in this podcast. Listen on the player above, or right click here to download an MP3. (2:05)

Tags:

Journalist security is still a maturing field, but news
organizations are devoting more attention to preparing their reporters and
photographers for the dangers particular to the profession. That means
understanding risks that are constantly evolving. The brutal attack on CBS
correspondent Lara
Logan at a Cairo demonstration has drawn worldwide attention to the issue
of sexual
assault against journalists--CPJ issued new
guidelines on the threat today--but the case also points to an emerging, if lesser-known
threat. In the past 18 months, more journalists have been killed covering
violent demonstrations and other non-military events than at any time since CPJ
began keeping detailed records two decades ago.

Tags:

New York, June 2, 2011--Rustam Makhmudov,the suspected gunman in the 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, was indicted in Moscow today, according to Russian press reports. The charges follow Makhmudov's arrest in Chechnya on Tuesday. The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed these developments and called on investigators to continue their efforts to solve the killing.